USB or Firewire Frame Grabber?

[Michael Schmid]

Hi ImageJers,

we have several video cameras with analog output and we are
looking for a solution for frame grabbing; we want USB or
Firewire boxes (not PCI cards).

Other requirements:
   8 bit grayscale
   "PAL" image resolution preferable (768 x 576 or 720 x 576)
   Some way of grabbing with ImageJ desired (driver or e.g. operating
       system call)
   Macintosh OSX (preferable) or Windows

In these days of firewire cameras, is anyone of you aware of
such a frame grabber still available?

Michael

[Alexander Brandt]

Hi Michael,

I have used the box from The Imaging Source and was quite satisfied with it.
Seems like they match your requirements.
http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/products/converters/

Best regards

Alexander

> Hi ImageJers,
>
> we have several video cameras with analog output and we are
> looking for a solution for frame grabbing; we want USB or
> Firewire boxes (not PCI cards).
>
> Other requirements:
>    8 bit grayscale
>    "PAL" image resolution preferable (768 x 576 or 720 x 576)
>    Some way of grabbing with ImageJ desired (driver or e.g. operating
>        system call)
>    Macintosh OSX (preferable) or Windows
>
> In these days of firewire cameras, is anyone of you aware of
> such a frame grabber still available?
>
> Michael
>

[Joachim Wesner]

Hi list,

thanx for the nice Dynamic Stat Tool macro that already does quite a bit
what I was looking for.

However, I´ve found one inconvience, how to install it/use it the first
time?

When I copy the macro to the plugins directory and restart ImageJ (1.39s)
it appears in the plugins menu.

I select the entry "Dynamic Stats and Histo" entry AND nothing happens, no
change to the icons/buttons in ImageJ.

I need to do "Macros/Install" or "Edit/^R" to get the new buttons and to
use it. Is this the way it is intended to be?
Or should it not be selectable via one of the ">>" "alternate macro tools"
entries on the right button?

Sincerely

Joachim


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[Joachim Wesner]

Hi there,

sounds interesting too for me, what additional driver/interfacing software
is needed to access the video data from ImageJ? Twain?

Do you have full "unattended" control from ImageJ, i.e. can you grab images
without user intervention (not as in the usual Twain scanner "look and
feel"
where a preview window appears, you need to OK one image individually, the
preview  window closes again etcetc.)?

I remember there were some discussions on this problem with video capture
interfaces and it was even suggested to use some kind of "robotic" mouse
plugin to automate that process, what I do not like too much....

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

Joachim Wesner



                                                                           
             Alexander Brandt                                              
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Hi Michael,

I have used the box from The Imaging Source and was quite satisfied with
it.
Seems like they match your requirements.
http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/products/converters/

Best regards

Alexander

> Hi ImageJers,
>
> we have several video cameras with analog output and we are
> looking for a solution for frame grabbing; we want USB or
> Firewire boxes (not PCI cards).
>
> Other requirements:
>    8 bit grayscale
>    "PAL" image resolution preferable (768 x 576 or 720 x 576)
>    Some way of grabbing with ImageJ desired (driver or e.g. operating
>        system call)
>    Macintosh OSX (preferable) or Windows
>
> In these days of firewire cameras, is anyone of you aware of
> such a frame grabber still available?
>
> Michael
>

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[jmutterer]

Hi Joachim

If you want the tool macro available immediately after startup, you should
add the tool macro's code to StartupMacros.txt file which is located in the
macros folder. This is OK if you do not have too many tools installed in the
StartupMacros file. Using the ">>" menu is a good option. To use it just put
the macro's file in the macros/toolsets/ folder.

The reason why it does not work by just putting your file in the plugins
folder is because these macros are listed in the plugins menu and set up so
that they can be run, not installed (what is required for Tool macros). In
the case of a macro file that holds more that one macro, only the first
macro in the file is run (the abort macro in your case).

Jerome



On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Joachim Wesner <
[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi list,
>
> thanx for the nice Dynamic Stat Tool macro that already does quite a bit
> what I was looking for.
>
> However, I´ve found one inconvience, how to install it/use it the first
> time?
>
> When I copy the macro to the plugins directory and restart ImageJ (1.39s)
> it appears in the plugins menu.
>
> I select the entry "Dynamic Stats and Histo" entry AND nothing happens, no
> change to the icons/buttons in ImageJ.
>
> I need to do "Macros/Install" or "Edit/^R" to get the new buttons and to
> use it. Is this the way it is intended to be?
> Or should it not be selectable via one of the ">>" "alternate macro tools"
> entries on the right button?
>
> Sincerely
>
> Joachim
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
> For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
> ______________________________________________________________________
>

[Gabriel Landini]

On Thursday 21 February 2008 14:29:10 Alexander Brandt wrote:
> I have used the box from The Imaging Source and was quite satisfied with
> it. Seems like they match your requirements.
> http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/products/converters/

I am also interested in this.
I have sony 3ccd camera that has an analog RGB output (i.e. is not composite,
nor S-VHS Y/C) that uses an old pci framegrabber (actually we have 2 of
those).
Do you know if there anything similar for this kind of camera? (i.e. RGB input
and firewire or usb2 output).

Thanks

Gabriel

[jchanson]

> I have used the box from The Imaging Source and was quite satisfied with
> it. Seems like they match your requirements.
> http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/products/converters/

I've also be interested in hearing about people's experience with this.
Right now, I'm trying to find options that can acquire images at higher
frame rates.  Using TWAIN drivers, I can get about 1 frame / second.  I'd
like to be able to get 15-30 frames per second.  If anyone's got
experience with capturing more "real-time" image sequences, I'd like to
hear about it.

Thanks!
Jeff Hanson
Senior Imaging Analyst
Eli Lilly and Company

[Alexander Brandt]

Hi everyone,

it seems like my post gathered a little more interest. I hope I can help
you with the following information:

- I have never used the ImageJ grabbing features, so I don't know anything
about integration into ImageJ.
- I have used the firewire box via the included driver lib (which can be
accessed via C++). Here you can set different paramters, like frame rate
as well. Works pretty well.
- I have used the firewire box via DirecShow filters. The WDM directly
integrates into DirectShow Video Streaming Sources. Here you can't set
parameters (at least I don't know how), but you can just use it like any
other standard firewire device. DirectShow can be accessed via C++ as
well.

So I might guess, if there are e.g. DirectShow Java Wrappers or Standard
Firewire Stream libs for Java it should be no problem to include the box
in an ImageJ plugin. Maybe somebody else can comment on this one.

Alexander Brandt

>> I have used the box from The Imaging Source and was quite satisfied with
>> it. Seems like they match your requirements.
>> http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/products/converters/
>
> I've also be interested in hearing about people's experience with this.
> Right now, I'm trying to find options that can acquire images at higher
> frame rates.  Using TWAIN drivers, I can get about 1 frame / second.  I'd
> like to be able to get 15-30 frames per second.  If anyone's got
> experience with capturing more "real-time" image sequences, I'd like to
> hear about it.
>
> Thanks!
> Jeff Hanson
> Senior Imaging Analyst
> Eli Lilly and Company
>

[Michael Schmid]

Hi ImageJers,

coming back to my wish of grabbing analog video signals on a
Macintosh and reading it directly into ImageJ:

Is there anyone among you who uses the combination of the
DFG/1394-1e grabber by theimagingsource
   http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/products/converters/dfg13941e/

together with the software by outcastsoft
   http://www.outcastsoft.com/ASCDFG1394.html

to grab images by ImageJ?

In theory, it should be possible via the QuickTime Capture
ImageJ plugin, but I wonder whether this also works in practice.

Thanks!

Michael